Beston 220 grit stone - my first experience

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Beston 220 grit stone - my first experience

Sometime ago, I was looking for a low grit stone for reprofiling kitchen knives. The DMT Extra-Extra Coarse is very effective at removing metal, but the resulting edge is often prone to chipping (not sure if it is just coincidence). I heard good things about the Beston 500 grit stone, but I wanted something different.

I bought a Beston 220 grit stone along with my Moritaka honesuki. My friend gave me two knives for sharpening: a Henckels Professional “S” 10-inch chef knife and a no name Santoku made in China. Both knives are in relatively decent shape, except for a few dings (see Photo 4).

The Beston 220 stone was able to grind out the ding areas in a relatively painless and quick manner (see Photo 5). I then moved to the Bester 1000, and Naniwa Super 2000. After I finished sharpening the Henckels, then I realized the edge is slightly receded behind the bolster, so I had to grind out some of the bolster with the Beston 220 stone, and it worked fine for that as well. Here are my few opinions about the Beston 220 stone:

1) Effective2) Reasonably priced3) Very porous and therefore very short soak time (see Photo 1 and 2)4) Dish very slow5) No need to constantly apply water to the stone as the water just drips right through it. 6) No feedback, but I guess this is normal for a low grit stone.7) I cannot really say how it compares to other low grit waterstones since I have not used another one.

I also have an opinion of the 10 inch Henckels:

a) This is one heavy knife. It weights 303 g, which is actually less than my Dexter Chinese cleaver (340 g), but the Henckels feels heavier, probably because the length gives it a greater torque. In comparison, the Tojiro DP 210 mm knife is 194 g.

P.S.: My friend is currently using my CarboNext Santoku and Tojiro DP Gyuto while I was sharpening hers. She is extremely pleased with these replacement knives.